the mud pit

So I don't really want to blog about Hobbs now. Honestly, I'm a little over the project at this point. It's not that it's taking longer than we expected or that it's a lot harder than we expected. It's mostly how much of life it takes up. Even when we do set aside time to do other things, it's in the back of our minds. I can easily spot when Thomas is mulling over the next decision in his mind.

And this month has been especially difficult due to trying to make progress on the new laundry room/bathroom in spite of the blasted rain. 

In order to begin, Thomas had to dig a new footing. Sometimes this is easy. Of course not at Hobbs. He would take the tractor over after work, in between storms, and dig out a hole, trying to find a place to dump the mud. 

After digging a 3 foot trench, which should be more than adequate to lay the block, he failed inspection because the soil is too soft. And by soil I guess I mean clay. Thomas calls it "bull tallit". I call it disgusting. When you step in it, your shoe gets stuck. When you try to pick up your baby that has been playing in it, everything gets covered in mud. I have spent more time hosing off shoes and legs and clothes.

Right about this time, we needed to switch out dumpsters. But the ground was so wet from all of the rain that the giant dumpster moving truck got stuck. Thomas rushed home from work and tried to tow the truck out with his pick-up, and then the tractor (seen in the photo below). After an hour of trying, the truck finally got free, leaving some serious ruts in the yard.

After a lot more digging, and a hole nearly 6 feet deep, Thomas finally passed inspection. Then came laying gravel in the footing and getting cement delivered. Having a cement truck in your backyard is pretty much little boy heaven.

We were able to get the block laid. Then it was back to the tractor for filling in dirt and evening it out.

It rained and rained. And my baby got messy messy messy.

In the meantime, we finished painting the porch boards, and Thomas and Walker got the front porch done in a day. I primed the columns but we can't decide what color to paint them. And the front door. Suggestions?

Finally, Thomas and Walker were able to get to framing the building during the long 4th of July weekend. It must have poured rain at least six times throughout their efforts. Each time they would have to quickly put up all of the tools and wait it out.

Pulling off the old ceiling from Hobbs' utility room turned the boys soot black with 100 years of who knows what raining down on them.

By the end of the weekend, they had sheathed the entire building. A 3 foot moat is still around the outside of the room.

Inside will be a back entrance to a laundry room and an additional bathroom, complete with a stand-up shower, with access from the back bedroom. It will be worth it when it's done :)

And saving the best for last...the siding is on the front and side...which makes it look like a real house!

Now it's on to plumbing and electrical, roofing and siding for the back room. And I'm sure plenty of mud mud mud.

May milestones

May was a month of checking off big boxes. The three big projects were patching holes in the main room floor, removing the asbestos siding, and tearing off the back porch.  

Thomas spent several evenings removing planks from the bedrooms to patch holes in the living room. He and his little helper glued in piece by piece to make a solid floor that is ready to be refinished once we are done painting.

Micah has started looking for his daddy over at Hobbs. He will go to the front door and point to the house or take off across the street whenever he can.

Removing the asbestos tiles from the house took a lot of research to do correctly. Thomas found one landfill that accepted this type of material, and had to take the pieces off, wet them, put them in a plastic bag, double bag them and zip tie them. It only took a morning to complete the demo, but made a 2,000 pound load to haul off.

We wish the original wood panels were in a little better shape, because it still looks pretty cool. But several places around windows were previously patched, and we didn't have the material to do the porches once torn off. So for now the house is wrapped in plastic like a big present, and we will put vinyl siding up in a future stage.

My mom and dad visited to lend a hand this weekend. Dad and Thomas removed the attic entry door and patched the back of the house. Then they carefully tore off the back porch while saving the ceiling and roof structure.

One of the reasons we had to remove the room was the failing foundation. This corner is a weight bearing column that isn't even supported by the bricks beneath.

Since mom was around, I got a chance to work on a project while she played with Micah. I (and the boys) primed each one of the 50 slats for the front porch floor.

Through all of the work we are trying to keep perspective on why we are doing this. It's a lot of work, but our goal is to have an investment that sets Micah up for school some day. We have been talking a lot about selling or renting when we are done. We would like to rent as a long-term investment, but we will have a lot of emotional attachment wrapped up in the house and it could be hard to see someone not treat it the way we would! Recently, Thomas said that he has come to the realization that as soon as we are done fixing it up, it will start breaking down anyway. No matter who lives there or what we do with it. It's sobering to think of this constant cycle of life. What better reason do we need to enjoy the work we have?

evidence

Seven months into the project, there is finally external evidence of the changes to Hobbs house! So many Pineville people have been starting to ask us what is going on at Hobbs, so it's nice to have some proof that we are indeed making progress.

We spent one weekend tearing off the old sun room since it was rotten in several places and the Historical Society asked us to replace it with a front porch more in line with the original construction.

Hobbs continues to haunt Thomas with ridiculous numbers of nails. Thomas hoped to use the tractor to pull the structure off, but with all of the fastening it would have done damage to the rest of the structure. So they sawed and pulled pieces off, then used the tractor to haul giant sections to the dumpster.

Micah of course loved the tractor. It was a baby boy's dream to ride along with his "Unkie" Walker.

The following weekend was dedicated to rebuilding in this constant cycle of destruction and renovation.

Thomas and Walker worked on a new floor structure, which was difficult to figure out since it had to be connected to a much less-than-perfect existing structure. Thomas is growing weary of working around old and crumbling construction. Everything takes so much more thought. I went over to check on things after several hours of work, and found just about nothing done. Good thing these White boys are resourceful!

This weekend called for lots of rain, so Thomas spent most evenings during the week trying to get some kind of roof on the porch. Since it takes so long to get tools out and takes more time when working alone, he just made a little progress each day...half the rafters, tearing off old flashing, the other half of the rafters, plywood, etc.

And somehow he chose the wrong boards and created a super long overhang. It provided some comic relief for a few days before he sawed them off.

One of my struggles all along has been finding jobs I can do while taking care of the babe. Our neighbor Paul just decided to do one of my jobs for me :) He stripped an old door that we found in the attic that we want to use as the front door. It matches ours.

When I finally did get a job, it was wiping down all of the walls with a wet rag in preparation for painting. I could do two rooms a day before Micah was over it.

Oh, and I got to pick out the paint color :)

Then Thomas finally got a chance to try out his new paint sprayer. He blew through all of the primer he bought in less than half of the house. So after buying new primer and a different nozzle, he finished the priming last night.

And the front porch passed one inspection today, so it's on to laying the decking on the porch and painting the ceilings and walls. My, change and restoration is a lot of work, and takes a long time.